Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her. “Here am I.” There is an openness in those three simple words, a complete availability, that is simply breathtaking. The rest of this Mary’s famous...

We are not yet at the point of Advent where we hear the story of Gabriel’s visit to Mary. But, to be honest, I think we save that reading too late in the season to give it due attention. Perhaps it’s because, as Denise Levertov notices in her poem “The Annunciation,” we...